“Follow me,” Priscilla said. “This way.”

His former promiscuity is finally coming in handy, I thought darkly as we approached the entryway into the hidden room. This would have taken time to find on our own.

It was concealed underneath the unused bar in the far corner. You stepped behind a half wall and lifted the false cabinet to reveal stairs. They traveled down, the noise from the revelers and music masking the sounds below. Something thumped in the room beyond the narrow passage, rising and falling with increasing volume as we approached.

“Welcome.” Priscilla smiled as she opened the door. “To the real Marquis.”

The room wasn’t large, but it was filled from top to bottom with unnatural devices of every kind. Manacles hung from the walls, the cuffs attached to them stained with blood. We stepped past benches of a variety I never wanted to know about, straps and buckles worn from repeated use. A wheel? I didn’t even want to guess what that was for.

The thumping noise we’d heard turned out to be the flogging of a couple tied to one of the welded poles. They were faced away from their tormentor, foreheads smacking into the pole with every blow, and from the looks of them, they weren’t enjoying their punishment.

The whip master paused in his measured staccato to glance up at us. He was a vampire, roughly two hundred from the feel of his aura.

“What have you brought me, Priscilla?”

Another vampire lounged on the nearby couch, drinking from the neck of an unconscious woman on his lap.

“Guests, Anre,” she said.

He rested his sherry-colored eyes over me. “I’ll take her. It will be a pleasure to mark her flawless skin.” Next he considered Bones. “You look familiar, have we met?”

Bones gave him a cold smile. “Not formally, but we did run into each other in London, round 1890, when I was looking for a bloke named Renard. Recall me now? I took his head but left you the rest of him.”

Anre lowered his whip. Realization bloomed on his features, and then he shot Priscilla a truly evil glare.

“You idiot, do you know who this is?”

Priscilla gave Bones a confused look. Her distraction gave me the chance-and the great satisfaction-to knock her down and then ram my silver-heeled shoe right through her heart.

“She pissed me off for the last time,” I said to no one in particular.

The vampire on the couch, watching this exchange with alarm, froze over his victim’s neck. I lunged at him next. The girl was snatched from his hands and thrown to Dave while I head-butted the vamp with brutal force. He was stunned for a moment. Just long enough for me to jab the heel of my shoe into his heart and straight out through his back.

Anre began to back away, although there was nowhere for him to go. Tate and Dave were behind him, Bones and me in front of him.

“Please don’t kill me, I have done nothing to you,” he whimpered.

“Bloody hell, show some dignity. You’re an embarrassment to the race,” Bones chided him.

“Tate, get the unhappy couple,” I directed him.

Tate went over to them, slashed his palm, and clapped it across each of their mouths. Soon their welts disappeared. Then he untied them from the pole, herding them well out of the way of the other bodies.

Anre held out a hand to Bones. “You have no cause to harm me. You want the humans? They’re yours.”

I shook my head. Wasn’t it always the bullies who feared retaliation the most?

“You’re afraid of him, but it’s me you need to worry about.”

I retrieved one of his fallen whips and cracked it for punctuation. Bones had thought I couldn’t handle seeing what he dished out to Max, but I could prove that I wasn’t too squeamish when it came to doing necessary dirty work.

“Give me the names of your other playmates, Anre. Refuse and, well…you have a lot of mean-looking toys here. Tried any of them out on yourself lately?”

An hour later I was in possession of a name-Slash. He was here somewhere, scouting out his potential dinner. With all the noise from above, I doubted he even knew what had happened to Anre.

I made my way through the dancers, seeking a man with the tattoo of a silver dragon along his jaw. Along the way, I was bumped, jostled, and even slapped by an overzealous woman whose partner turned away at the last moment. She didn’t even apologize, either. Just glared at me and snapped, “That wasn’t your gift!”

“I’ll give it back, then,” I responded, and whacked her a good one. Honestly, whatever happened to saying,Excuse me?

Someone grabbed me from behind. Cool hands moved over my breasts in a rough caress. I stiffened but didn’t slam my elbow into their rib cage. Not yet.

“I’m better from the front,” I purred in my best bondage-tramp imitation.

My head was jerked back next, so hard there would be strands of it in his grip. I gritted my teeth. This better be Slash, or I was going to stomp the shit out of the unknown asshole.

That cool hand made its way from my breast down my stomach-and didn’t stop. Okay, enough being Little Miss Submissive!

I whirled around, losing more hair, and smashed my knee up at the same time. Tall, Dark, and Depraved, who didnot have a silver dragon tattoo on his jaw, doubled over. Then I shoved him into the gyrating mass of revelers surrounding us.

“Isaid I’m better from thefront.”

There was laughter by the other dancers close enough to witness this. I gave Tall, Dark, and Depraved another nasty glare before scouting around again for Slash. He had to be here. I didn’t want to come back tomorrow if I couldn’t find him. In fact, I’d be pretty happy if I never set foot in this place again.

Two more cool hands slid along my waist, pulling me back against a hard chest. I clenched my fist, about to let loose a roundhouse punch, when something out of the corner of my eye stopped me. Were those scales etched on the side of my new Romeo’s face?

I turned around…and smiled. “You look good enough to eat, handsome.”

The man grinned, stretching the dragon’s tail that curled from his jaw to the side of his mouth. “Funny you should say that. I was thinking the same thing about you.”

We began to dance. Slash was about my height, and he used the alignment of our bodies to his greatest advantage. I let it go on for a few minutes. Right up until he unzipped his leather pants and pulled out Mr. One Eye.

“Whoa,” I said, twisting away as he attempted to find a home for his stiff friend. “Isn’t there somewhere we can be…alone?”

Slash glanced at his cock, as if expecting it to voice an objection. Then he tugged my arm.

“Come with me. I know just the place.”

I saw with relief that I was being pulled toward the fake bar. If he’d gone in the opposite direction, all hell would have broken loose. Slash never bothered to tuck his dick back in his drawers, either. That thing stuck out the whole time like it was pointing the way.

“Oohh, how exciting,” I said as he lifted the faux counter to reveal that hidden staircase.

Slash took my hand, almost yanking me beside him. The narrowness made for a very uncomfortable walk as we went down.Mental note: Shower as soon as possible.

“I think you’ll be surprised,” he said as he opened the door. Then he stopped short. “What the-?”

I shoved him in with all my strength. Slash went sprawling. He skidded to a halt at that awful pole, which now had the very bloody form of Anre shackled to it.

I closed the door behind me. Bones went over to Slash, raised a brow at his rapidly deflating erection, and then gave him an icy smile.

“No, mate, I expectyou’re the one who’s surprised.”

“If we can leave quietly, I think we won’t have to call in the team,” Tate said as he piled Slash’s body on top of Anre’s. Priscilla and the other nameless vampire were stacked next to them.